In the automotive sector and the sector of industrial machinery, there are known a plurality of hybrid traction systems, comprising an internal combustion engine, an electric motor, a transmission for connecting the motors to the wheels of a vehicle and a control device for controlling the motors and the transmission.
Among the known hybrid systems, some use a continuously variable transmission (CVT) of the toroidal type. Usually, in those systems, the toroidal CVT is of the type with an oscillating roller, whose direction of charge at the contact location oscillates in a manner integral with the roller itself. This represents an enormous disadvantage because the torque which can be transmitted from that toroidal CVT progressively decreases in an asymptotic manner with an increase in the speed of the drive shaft and consequently is adapted poorly to the stresses which are introduced from the vehicle, from the endothermic engine or from the electric motor. In order to compensate for that typical deficiency of the above-mentioned existing toroidal CVT, some constructors have been obliged to implement some auxiliary systems, which are very expensive and not very reliable, for limiting the torque being introduced into the toroidal CVT, and other systems for varying the normal force between the rotary elements of those toroidal CVTs. In particular, the system for varying the charge between the elements of those toroidal CVTs provide for the use of an oil pump, a proportional valve and a complex piece of management software. The use of the hydraulic pump is enormously unfavorable because it brings about a continuous consumption of energy.
Typically, in those existing hybrid traction systems, the electric motor is connected to the wheels by means of a fixed transmission ratio, it therefore being impossible for the control system to control the speed of the electric motor independently of the speed of the vehicle. This is a disadvantage for the overall efficiency of the vehicle because the speed of the electric motor depends on the speed of the vehicle and cannot therefore be maintained at the value corresponding to the maximum output of the electric motor.
Furthermore, in the same known hybrid traction systems, the endothermic engine is connected to the wheels with a series of fixed transmission ratios, it consequently being necessary to use a complex system for controlling the endothermic engine which is capable of controlling both the speed and the torque delivered. Since the torque delivered by the endothermic engine could damage the toroidal CVT immediately downstream, this results in both the control systems, the system of the motor and the system for limiting the moment being introduced into the CVT, having to interact and to communicate with each other. The complexity of those auxiliary control systems is inevitably a source of high costs and unreliability.
In the known hybrid traction systems which do not use a CVT, another disadvantage is brought about in that there is applied to the internal combustion engine a gearbox with discrete transmission ratios which brings about a significant dissipation of energy during the change steps. Furthermore, the internal combustion engine has to continually vary its speed so as to adapt to the travel conditions of the vehicle, thereby operating at the speed corresponding to the minimum specific consumption of fuel only for limited periods. This involves another reduction in the overall efficiency of the vehicle.
Furthermore, in the known hybrid traction systems, there are provided operating conditions, typically at low speed, in which the internal combustion engine is in neutral running, or is disconnected from the transmission. Under those conditions, the wheels of the vehicle receive power exclusively from the electric motor, which therefore has to be suitably over-dimensioned, with a resultant increase in the dimensions and costs.
In order to solve the problem, some hybrid traction systems provide for a device for braking the output of the internal combustion engine so as to prevent operating conditions of neutral running. However, that device has the disadvantage of dissipating kinetic energy every time it is actuated; with a resultant reduction in the overall efficiency of the vehicle.
In other hybrid traction systems in which the combustion engine is always connected to the transmission, under the above-mentioned operating conditions at low speed as far as complete standstill of the vehicle, the member of the transmission connected to the combustion engine does not include the operating condition in which the transmission ratio of the above-mentioned member is such as to determine a zero value of the speed of that member. In those systems, there is applied friction to disconnect the endothermic engine from the remainder of the transmission and a brake for stopping the above-mentioned member in the above-mentioned stopping operations. The use of friction and a brake results in a significant increase in the costs, the spatial requirements of the transmission and the power dissipated without carrying out useful work for the traction of the vehicle.
In those systems, if there is used an additional braking device which is connected to the wheels of the vehicle, when the vehicle is switched off, it is advantageously possible to start the combustion engine by actuating and rotating the electric motor. In fact, since the above-mentioned transmission ratio of the member connected to the combustion engine does not ever assume the value zero under any operating conditions and the speed of the member is never zero, the motion of the electric motor is transmitted directly to the combustion engine in order to start it. Those hybrid traction systems have, however, the disadvantage that, during the deceleration steps of the vehicle, a portion of the kinetic energy of the vehicle is inevitably transmitted from the wheels to the combustion engine by means of the member connected thereto because the member does not ever assume a value of zero for the rotational speed. As known, the combustion engine is not reversible and consequently the energy transmitted thereto during the deceleration steps of the vehicle is completely dispersed by means of dissipation and the overall efficiency of the vehicle is unsatisfactory.
Among the toroidal CVTs which have some of the disadvantages set out above, there is set out in particular, among those in which the rotation direction of the secondary shaft and drive shaft are opposed, the one described in the patent EP1061286 A1 of Torotrak Dev LTD, entitled “Drive mechanism for infinitely variable transmission”. In that toroidal CVT, the direction of the charge between the rotating elements oscillates together with the oscillation of the roller. That geometry produces a value of the torque on the secondary shaft which progressively decreases asymptotically with the increase in speed of rotation of the secondary shaft and consequently becomes poorly adapted to the stresses arising from the vehicle, the electric motor and the endothermic engine itself.
Another example of a hybrid motor provided with a toroidal CVT is also described in international patent application WO 2008/095116.